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I got my fancy piece of junk working but I noticed that it would crash every once in a while.

While doing whatever, the screen would go dark and the power light on the monitor would start blinking like it does when it's not connected to anything.

If audio was playing, it would keep playing.... like the system didn't crash but the video crapped out.

Tried fiddling with the cables, but the only way to get it back up is to reboot.

It would do this once or twice in a few hours, sometimes three times.

well tonight I intsalled my first fancy game, world of warcraft.... I ran into problems with that (that's a whole other thread) but after the intstall it started crashing like this a lot.... every few minutes.

I have never been able to see if there is a heat spike associated with this.

I'm stumped. With the problems I had from the beginning, I've ended up replacing a dead cpu and mb that were killed from heat issues, and replaced the power supply becuase I didn't trust the old one.

Maybe the video card is crapped too? I mean it, works.. sorta... but these crashed started in earnest after installing a high end game.

"I mean it, works... sorta ..." it sounds like you answered your own question. It's a Video problem ... hardware or software the game is trying to access resources that are unavailable and/or not working. Do you have the latest drivers installed for your card?

Your problem definitely sounds like its video related. You can probably save your current OS if you use a different/older video card. When I asked about the latest drivers for your card I meant the ones that are available for download from the manufactures web site not those that came with the card. Even if the card was recently manufactured odds are there are newer drivers available. Also you didnt mention what OS you are running, if its XP you should note that it was released in 10/2001 and if your card is newer XP does not have the required drivers for it.

If you do clean install use an older card until XP is completely installed, download the latest drivers for the new card and unzip them to a temporary folder. Power down and replace your video card, start the system and when XP prompts you for the drivers point it to the folder.

As for your data, if you do a clean install on a different drive you can add the other drive as a slave ... once you have completed the OS installation.

One thing that does bother me is that you say that now you don't even get BIOS screen.
If you don't get BIOS that's a hardware problem. Don't worry about drivers until you get past this.
Does it give you a sequence of beeps when you turn it on? If so, call the MB mfgr, that sequence should tell you exactly what the hardware problem is.
If it's not beeping you need to make sure that your display is actually working before going further. My GF's gateway monitor died and the behavior was as you describe.

I've found video cards to be very sensative to hot plugging the monitors in. By this I mean that your system is running and you plug the vid cable into the card.
I know folks say they are designed to take this but I have had a bunch of vid cards quit after having monitors hot plugged.
For every card I've had that's failed, I can look back and remember a plug in event w/in a few days of it's death.

I don't do this anymore. I always fully shut the system down (power OFF) before plugging in monitors.

Another note is that a number of these deaths have occured w/ ATI cards. They seem particularly fragile (though I've had other mfg cards die too.)

Before you go formatting anything, you need to get past bios screen.

Your original problem sounds like there's an issue with the screen saver system and you should disable it until you confirm that it's not related to screen saver.

If you are using drivers that came with the card, this is undoubtable another problem. IMHO ATI writes some of the worst drivers on the planet. Using the trash that comes with the card is a sure fire method to ensure you'll have problems.
Always get the latest drivers from ATI.

Frankly, I've had sooo many problems with ATI hardware and their drivers over the years that I won't use their stuff anymore.
I still have an 8500 in one machine. I have never been able to get it to run high end games reliabily. I like F1, but can't get it to stay stabile.

IMHO the best overall bang for the buck and by far the best drivers are nVidia. I do compare when shopping for a new card and if ATI happens to be ahead (speed wise) at that moment in the cycle, I simply wait until the cycle changes and nVid is ahead again.

Hope this helps and good luck.

These Guys make a pretty good burn in app once you get it running again. DL it and run and let it hammer the card. If it's weak it'll show up (probably crash.)

I replaced it and it worked ok, every once in a while the video driver would fail, the system would go to CGA and I'd have to reboot.

before I could reinstall the video drivers the thing crashed again. I think I found the main problem that has been plauging me from the beginning.

the case is wired wrong. I plugged my digital camera into the front usb and it fried my new mb. fried with a capitol F. the south bridge had a hole in it.

so, I'm hit in the wallet again for a new mb, and I'm replacing the case. down the line I may need to get a new video card as well. I bought a case off the shelf at the local pc club, but I'm going to rma the bad one back to newegg. I paid for it, might as well get a new one.

so if anyone needs a case, PM me.... I'll have a NIB raidmax in a week or so.

if I still have problems after that, I'm shooting the thing, and buying a viewmaster 3D for my entertainment.

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